Hilarious the science tree gives us Skipper before Mainsail

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I... What... October...Novemb.... WHY DID I THINK OCTOBER WAS BEFORE SEPTEMBER I NEED TO SLEEP GOODBYE.

Bye!

Anyway, on topic, I use skippers as a second stage engine on my non-asparagus medium lifters.

Payload

Decoupler

X200-32 tank

Decoupler

X200-64 tank

X200-64 tank

Mainsail.

And around the edge are 8 large SRBS

[The Destroyer]

Skippers are far less powerful, but more effiecnt. They can't lift as much, but they don't need a big rocket. Makes sense to me.

[Whackjob]

(imagine a Patrick Stewart meme picture here, reading "There are FOUR skippers!")

[Goldham]

Snip

(imagine a Patrick Stewart meme picture here, reading "There are FOUR skippers!")

I was going to say something about that being massive but since its a Whackjob post It doesn't need to be said.

Like how the Skippers and Nukes are arranged though, might try it someday.

[Whackjob]

Like how the Skippers and Nukes are arranged though, might try it someday.

I like it because it's self-balancing. I just use hotkeys to switch between skipper drive and atomic drive.

[Nimaci]

I haven't used a Mainsail for around a year now, and have not used the Skipper at all, even though I have a tendency to build big.

All of my 2.5m boosters use a hexagonal cluster of LVT-T30s (mounted on BZ-52 Radial Attachment Points) around a single LV-T45, this setup offers much better performance and greater load bearing capacity (I rarely have to use launch clamps, even with >1kT GLOW rockets), so to me the Mainsail and Skipper are utterly pointless.

[Whackjob]

I like the RVT-T30s, but there are some times you just have to go mainsail and skipper.

Like when you're already at 3,400 parts and you don't want to make it 4,200.

[Nimaci]

I like the RVT-T30s, but there are some times you just have to go mainsail and skipper.

*snip*

Like when you're already at 3,400 parts and you don't want to make it 4,200.

You're welcome

[Whackjob]

You're welcome

Did one of those ages ago hehe. Though I built an external truss reinforcement. But I think I will give that method a whirl. Definitely. Can't replace the truss and strut method, because there has to be trusses with very large things, but a mix never hurts!

... yeah, I'm gonna go for a new largest rocket and see.

[Whackjob]

First test:

6.7 giganewtons of thrust. That is an ABSURD amount. I use this volume of thrust because I'm desperately trying to get this to fail via compression forces. I failed horribly.

I'm going to swap out the outer skippers with additional mainsails. Let's see if that does it...

#EDIT: Nimaci, I think you're really onto something there. The outside trussing I used was severely minimal. And it holds like a champ.

#EDIT2: 13.5 giganewtons of thrust subjected to the bottom fuel tank. Failed to shear. Remarkable. Going higher.

#EDIT3: 25.5 giganewtons of thrust subjected to the bottom fuel tank. Failed to shear. My jaw just bounced off the floor.

I have no idea how I'll put more mainsails on there. I'll have to find a way.

#EDIT4: Finally got failure at 37.5 giganewtons of thrust. But not due to compression force... the mad clipping caused resonance and the pieces flew apart.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Whackjob

[Nimaci]

Nimaci, I think you're really onto something there

I learned it from someone else on these forums a long time ago, It's definitely a game changer.

[Kerbart]

This image needs to be stickied somewhere. It seems the perfect "your argument is invalid" rebuttal for practically any discussion on this forum.

[Whackjob]

This image needs to be stickied somewhere. It seems the perfect "your argument is invalid" rebuttal for practically any discussion on this forum.

How about this:

This is Jebediah Kerman passing gas on a seven hundred foot tall lander tower on the Mun.

Your argument is invalid.

[Tw1]

How about this big link:

Your argument is invalid.

In your sig, below the ribbons. Anyone who wants to see can find it.

[Godot]

First test:

6.7 giganewtons of thrust. That is an ABSURD amount. I use this volume of thrust because I'm desperately trying to get this to fail via compression forces. I failed horribly.

...

I guess if you install Reentry Heat, you will be successfully in destroying your craft with the heat generated in the lower atmosphre layers due to ascent

[Seanner]

That same tank will explode if you hit the ground at a handful of m/s...because the ground must subject 73 megateragigapetatons of force or something to it, or whatever number is higher than that thrust.

[SyberSmoke]

That same tank will explode if you hit the ground at a handful of m/s...because the ground must subject 73 megateragigapetatons of force or something to it, or whatever number is higher than that thrust.

This reminds me of a joke "What is the last thing that goes through a bugs mind when it hits your windshield?" "Its Ass." Technically the tank does not take damage from the force it hits at. There is just a value that says if the object is going X when it impacts another body, it goes boom.

So really if the ship shown was not rigidly strapped together and the nodes interacted, this would apply forces and bets are the nodes would shear or compact the parts into one another...and then boom! This is probably more about Wackjobs ability to reinforce the nods so they do not wobble then it is about the object being able to take the stresses. Stresses that may not even be calculated by the object...just the nodes.

Edited November 11, 2013 by SyberSmoke

[Moar Boosters]

Personally I think Skippers are most effective if used Russian style - 30 to start off with....... then blow them all up with 8 more.

[Dispatcher]

What's interesting to me is that the large diameter engine we encounter first in the tech tree is ... the poodle.

[FlamedSteak]

Anyone else notice that a singular LV-N will overheat above 47kn (approx) if you give it a large mass to push.

[Eric S]

What's interesting to me is that the large diameter engine we encounter first in the tech tree is ... the poodle.

Agreed. I've used the Skipper as my launch engine, I've never used a poodle to launch off of Kerbin. It's rare enough that I use one to circularize, and I'm not at all tempted to use one until I've at least got some other 2.5m engine to get it up there.

[Kasuha]

Anyone else notice that a singular LV-N will overheat above 47kn (approx) if you give it a large mass to push.

No, it just overheats if you stick it to Jumbo. Kinda like Mainsails used to before they tweaked their heating down.

[Duke23]

I think I used the Poodle once, before I actually looked at its stats and then just decided to go with smaller engines to save weight. I use Skippers for everything right now, my workhorse lifter uses a total of 19 Skippers and can lift 50+ tons (I haven't maxed it out yet as it's a new design to replace my old ~25T lifter) into a stable 150km orbit without breaking a sweat. It was a big accomplishment for me being pretty new too all this still. It's usually got a full tank or almost full tank on the central stage after circularizing and it's not even a proper asparagus setup but it does crossfeed toward center. The payload in this pic weighs a little over 49T and is what I'm constructing a supposedly interplanetary ship around in orbit.

Edit: After going back and looking at some of the monstrosities in the last couple pages, I almost don't want to post this. Whackjob you especially, never cease to amaze me and also make me ask "Whyyyyyyy?!" lol

Edited January 2, 2014 by Duke23

[rkman]

So new players will stack 2 large grey tanks just like they did their medium tanks, plop a skipper at the bottom and * fizzzt * it will most definitely NOT get them the results they expect

Is that a bad thing? Isn't half the game about trying, failing and trying again?

Enjoy indeed.

[Jimmy Jazz]

Ok, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I've started testing engines rcently and skipper fails...

Ok, maybe the weight is a variable I'm not condsidering, but skipper achieves 50km and 940m/s

Launched straight up from the launch pad, compared to LV 30 which achieves 1850km with

the same amount of fuel... Even when launched from 10km instead of the launch pad, it fails

to match the LV30 launched from KSC... So, what am I doing wrong? Why use skipper, instead

of e.g. three LV 30's?